Bottle-filling machine.



No. 892,483. PATENTED JULY 7, 1908.

L. P. WILLIAMS & J. M. FALLS.

BOTTLE FILLING MACHINE. APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 0, 1907.

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WI TNESSES. INVENTUHS: JK7M AM James Fay/s BfW/IM A TTUHNE) PATENTED JULY 7, 1908. L. P. WILLIAMS & J. M. FALLS.

BOTTLE FILLING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1907.

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WITNESSES INVEN runs:

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W L nard PVW/Uoms 5y MAM ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT oEEioE.

LEONARD P. WILLIAMS AND JAMES M. FALLS, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNORS TO LOUISVILLE FILLER COMPANY.

BOTTLE-FILLING MACHINE.

Application filed November 9, 1907.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, LEONARD P. lVILLIAMs and JAMES M. FALLs, of the city of Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have jointly invented new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Filling Machines.

Our invention relates to improvements in that class of bottle filling machines in which a tank, having a number of tubes depending therefrom, reciprocates vertically so as to introduce the tubes into bottles beneath.

The objects of the improvements are first, to provide a means for guiding bottles to a position under the filling tubes; second, a means for imparting tothe tubes and filler tank the vertically reciprocating motion, and at the lifting of said tank and tubes automatically putting in place a series of bottles for the next filling; and third, so to support the protective bar used to center each bottle for the tube above it, that it will require no individual adjustment for the use with bottles of defferent height. These results are obtained by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a complete bottle-filling machine. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same, the filling tank being cut away to show the plate dividing same into two compartments and the valve connecting same. Fig. 3 is a view, showing in detail, the attachment of the vertical standards to the series of levers used to raise and lower them. Fig. 4 is a view of the bed-plate and guides looking down from above, the tank and filling tubes being removed.

Similar figures and letters indicate similar parts in all the drawings.

A is a substantial frame, bearing the bedplate B and provided at each side with guides 1111 through which move the standards CC. These standards support the tank D, with filling tubes E and centering bar F depending therefrom.

In order to promote the regular and rapid adjustment of bottles beneath the filling tubes, a series of alleys of adjustable width is provided, as follows :Across the back and the front of the machine, flush with the upper surface of the bed but detached therefrom, run metal bars 50, 50 bearing T shaped standards 15 capable of rotation and capable of being fixed at any point of rotation by thumb nut 16. Each front standard is con- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 7, 1908.

Serial No. 401,439.

nected with the corresponding one at the rear of the machine by two bars 13-13, one attached at each end of the crossarm, in such manner as to permit, through the rotation of the standards, adjustment of the bars at varying distances from each other, so as to leave between the right hand bar of one set of standards and the left hand bar of the next, a space approximately the width of the bottles to be filled. For the guide at each side of the bed-plate a bar 48 is used hung from three arms 1444-441, made in the shape of an inverted L, the vertical part being cylindrical and resting in cylindrical holes in the three supports 171717. It is fastened at any desired position by means of thumb screws in the supports.

For producing the vertically reciprocating motion of the tank and appendages, and moving forward a new row of bottles, as the filler-tubes clear the row just filled, the following mechanism is employed: To a shaft 40, resting in boxes 282S, which are in turn fixed to the frame work of the machine, is rigidly attached a hand-lever 20. It is provided with a spring-controlled trigger 21 actuating a dog 22, which, when the lever is pulled down, engages the bar 26. To the shaft is attached a lever 29, whose extremity is attached to the connecting rod 32. This in turn is connected with the lever 34 fu'mly attached to the shaft 35 moving in the boxes 36, 36. To this are rigidly attached two levers 33 33 which engage the connecting links 3131. These are finally, as shown in the detailed drawing Fig. 3, attached to the horizontal arm of clam 5151,fixed 011 each of the upright standarr s C. lNhen the handlever 20 is moved until it is stopped at 26, the levers and connecting rods being of proper proportion, the connecting rod 32 moves toward the front of the machine and the lever 33 is depressed, so that, by means of the link 31, the standards C are pulled downward.

Screws at 7-7 render the height of the tank and tubes adjustable to that. of the bot tles. Two counter-balance weights 38-38, adjustable along the lever 37, which is rigidly fastened to the shaft 40, draw the hand-lever back to its original position, where it is restrained from further backward motion by the stop 49, the standards returning to their highest position by a process, the reverse of that which has been deends these links are pierced by slots 30, 30, equally distant from each edge; in said slot scribed. In this position, the filler-tubes are drawn clear of the bottles. To the shaft 40 are also rigidly attached two levers 27 27 at the extremity of each of which is connected a link 2525 in the form of an arc of a circle, with a radius equal to the effective length of the levers 2727. Except at the runs a pin projecting from the rod 23, which, being clamped to the short rod 52, is restrained to a forward and backward movement by the sliding of said rod 52 through guide holes in the small standards 1717. Over the top of the guide rods 5252, and connecting the rod 23 with its duplicate on the other side of the machine, is the bar 45, preferably of wood. It will be seen that when the bottles are filling and the tank and tubes are down the bar 45 is at its farthest point from the line of bottles being filled. During a part of the strokei. e. that part while the tubes are not yet free of the tops of the bottles, the bars 23*23 remain stationary, the links 2525 sliding along the pins. At a point capable of adjustment by means of the lock screws 24, 24 in theslots 30, 30 the pins strike the lock-screws and during the rest of the upward movement of the hand-lever, the bar 45 moves forward, pushing empty bottles nearer to the point of filling, displacing the filled bottles, and leaving one row immediately under the tubes. A proper adj ustment of the lock-screw makes this movement equal to the thickness of one of the bottles in use.

The bar F is provided with a number of funnel-shaped openings, each placed so as to come under the center of a filling tube, the large end of the funnel being down. The ends of the bar are curved so as to be restrained between the standards CC, and are supported by chains from the tank D in such a way to hang a short distance below the ends of the filler-tubes. As the standards and tank are made to descend, this guide-bar engages the top of each bottle, even though it be somewhat out of center with the filling tube, and draws the bottles in exact alinement for the insertion of the filling tubes. The bar is prevented from coming too far down by the arms 10-10, supported by standards adjustable at any height in the bosses at 11, 11. The suspension by chain renders it unnecessary to adjust the centering bar F for bottles of different heights, since it always keeps said bar at a point conveniently free of the filling tubes.

The other details of construction shown in the drawing have no essential relation to the matters in the present invention, merely showing one way of working out the auxiliary problems. The general scheme of the lan here shown is as follows: The pressure 0 the bottle against the pad in the cap 8, in the 1 filling position of the tubes and tank, opens a valve at the top of the filling tube, within the tank, and permits the flow of liquid into'the bottle. Air from the stopped bottle,an'd at the close of the filling operation, a small quantity of liquid,escape through an airtube sealed within the filler-tube, and delivering its contents into the tube and finally into the upper compartment of the divided tank D. The liquid collected above the dividing plate 6 is introduced into the pressure chamber or filling tank, being the lower compartment, by a float valve 5, the invention of Leavelle McCampbell, whose application was filed Sept. 26, 1907, with the Serial Num ber 394,700. Other methods of disposing of overflow may be used with the present invention.

Having described our invention fully, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent the following:

1. In a bottle filling machine, adjustable alleys for guiding the bottles to be filled, con-- sisting of parallel bars connected in pairs by a suitably supported bar at each end, the distance between the said guide-bars varying with the angle at which the said end-bars are adjusted with reference to said guide-bars, and being capable of firm adjustment by means of set-screws or otherwise.

2. In a bottle filling machine, the combination of two bars, one across the front, the other across the rear of the bed-plate, bearing vertical rotating T-shaped standards capable of being locked at any position, with straight bars connected from one extremity of each front T bar to the corresponding extremity of a correspondingT bar at the rear; making a series of alleys for guiding bottles to a position beneath the filler tubes, adjustable to bottles of different widths by rotating the T-shaped standards, substantially as de scribed.

3. In a bottle filling machine, the combination of a partially rotating shaft bearing levers rigidly attached to said shaft the extremity of which joint with slotted links; with suitably guided bars, each bearing on one extremity a pin adapted to slide in said slot, the'length of which is adjustable by a lock-screw and with a bar across the upper surface of the bed-plate connecting the other extremities of the guided bars; the whole adapted to slide a row of bottles into place under the filling tubes displacing those just filled, and capable of adjustment for bottles of different width, substantially as set forth.

4. In a bottle filling machine, the combination of a vertically reciprocating system comprising standards bearing a filling tank and tubes, a lever-driven shaft, a second lever rigidly attached to said shaft, a connecting rod attached-to the extremity of said second lever, a second shaft actuated by said connecting rod, a lever or levers rigidly attached to said second shaft, connecting links attached near the extremities of thelastnamed levers, and clamps to which said links are attached, and which are adapted to be secured to the reciprocating standards above-named, substantially as described.

5. The combination in a bottle filling machine of a series of levers, actuated by a shaft capable of partial rotation and producing through such rotation a vertically-reciprocating motion of the standards bearing a filler-tank and tubes, with a cross-bar for pushing into filling position a row of bottles across the bed-plate of the machine; a slotted link actuated by the said shaft, and a suitably guided rod attached at one end to the said cross-bar and having at its other end a pin sliding in said slotted link, the whole forminga means by which a single movement by the operator moves the tank upward and draws the tubes out of the bottles, and at the proper moment, after the tubes are clear of the bottles, shoves a new row in the place of those just filled, and by which a reverse movement lowers the tubes into the empty bottles and moves the cross-rod back for a new row to be inserted, substantially as described.

6. In a bottle filling machine, the combination with a vertically reciprocating filling tank and appended filling tubes, of a bottlecentering bar, flexible supports of equal fixed length each attached at one end to said tank or appendages and at the other to said centering bar, and adjustable side-stops fixed to the stationary frame of the machine and adapted to prevent the said centering bar from descending below a given point, substantially as described.

LEONARD P. \NlLliIAh IS. JAMES M. FALLS. Witnesses:

LEAVELLE MOCAMPBELL, LOUISE C. STARK. 

